This document explains how to set up Xen 4.2 in Arch. It uses the new oxenstored / xl toolstack (replaces the xend / xm toolstack which was deprecated in Xen 4.1).

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==何謂 Xen?==

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==Second heading==

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According to the Xen development team:

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:"''The Xen hypervisor, the powerful open source industry standard for virtualization, offers a powerful, efficient, and secure feature set for virtualization of x86, x86_64, IA64, PowerPC, and other CPU architectures. It supports a wide range of guest operating systems including Windows®, Linux®, Solaris®, and various versions of the BSD operating systems.''"

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===Third heading===

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====Fourth heading====

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Me too<br>New line

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The Xen hypervisor is a thin layer of software which emulates a computer architecture. It is started by the boot loader of the computer it is installed on, and allows multiple operating systems to run simultaneously on top of it. Once the Xen hypervisor is loaded, it starts the "Dom0" (short for "domain 0"), or privileged domain, which in our case runs a Linux kernel (other possible Dom0 operating systems are NetBSD and OpenSolaris). The physical hardware must, of course, be supported by this kernel to run Xen. Once the Dom0 has started, one or more "DomUs" (short for user domains, sometimes called VMs) can be started and controlled from Dom0.

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'''''bold and italics'''''

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Xen.org provides a [http://wiki.xen.org/wiki/Xen_Overview full overview]

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''''' Bold and italics are in five apostrophes'''''

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=====Fifth Level Heading=====

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:indent

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:::and more

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==Types of Virtualization Available with Xen==

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*bullet list

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===Paravirtual (PV)===

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Paravirtualized guests require a kernel with support for Xen built in. This is default for all recent Linux kernels and some other Unix-like systems. Paravirtualized domUs usually run faster then HVM domains as they do not have to run in emulated hardware.

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===Hardware Virtual (HVM)===

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For OSes that do not natively support Xen (e.g. Windows), HVM offers full hardware virtualization. To use HVM in Xen, the host system hardware must include either Intel VT-x or AMD-V (SVM) virtualization support. In order to verify this, run the following command on the host system:

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grep -E "(vmx|svm)" --color=always /proc/cpuinfo

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If the above command does not produce output, then hardware virtualization support is unavailable and your hardware is unable to run Xen HVM guests. It is also possible that the host CPU supports one of these features, but that the functionality is disabled by default in the system BIOS. To verify this, access the host system's BIOS configuration menu during the boot process and look for an option related to virtualization support. If such an option exists and is disabled, then enable it, boot the system and repeat the above command.

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[[pacman]]

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'''Bold text'''''Italic text''[http://www.example.com link title]

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== Obtaining Xen ==

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Xen is available from the AUR. The recommended current stable version is [https://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?ID=14640 Xen 4.2], and the bleeding edge unstable package can be found [https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/xen-hg-unstable/ here.] Both packages provide the Xen hypervisor, current xl interface and all configuration and support files, including systemd services.

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Xen, unlike certain other virtualization systems, relies on a full install of the base operating system. Before attempting to install Xen, your host machine should have a fully operational and up-to-date install of Arch Linux. If you are building a new host from scratch, see the [[Installation_Guide|Installation Guide]] for instructions on installing Arch Linux.

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Like all AUR packages, the Xen binaries are built from source. Note that it is possible (but not necessary) to build the package on a separate machine and transfer the xz package over, assuming that the machines share the same architecture (e.g. x86_64). For Xen, an internet connection is needed during its compilation because further source files are downloaded during the process. Xen.org recommends a host to be 64-bit. This requires the 'multilib' repository to be enabled in ''etc/pacman.conf''.

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To build the package you will need the following:

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{{Template:Sandbox|template-test}}

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base-devel zlib lzo2 python2 ncurses openssl libx11 yajl

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libaio glib2 base-devel bridge-utils iproute gettext

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dev86 bin86 iasl markdown git wget

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optional packages: ocaml ocaml-findlib

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You will need to enable the 'extra' repository to get bin86. A tool such as [https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/yaourt/ yaourt] or [https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/packer/ packer] can aid in downloading, compiling and installing dependencies for AUR packages.

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== Configuring Xen ==

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The following configuration steps are required once the Xen package is installed.

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'''The dom0 host requires'''

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* an entry in the bootloader configuration file

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* systemd services to be started at boot time

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* a xenfs filesystem mount point

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* bridged networking configuration

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In addition to these required steps, the current xen.org wiki has a section regarding [http://wiki.xen.org/wiki/Xen_Best_Practices best practices for running Xen.] It includes information on allocating a fixed amount of memory dom0 and how to dedicate (pin) a CPU core for dom0 use.

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=== Bootloader Configuration ===

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Xen requires that you boot a special xen kernel (xen.gz) which in turn boots your system's normal kernel. A new bootloader entry is needed. To boot into the Xen system, we need a new menuentry in grub.cfg. The Xen package provides a grub2 generator file: ''/etc/grub.d/09_xen''. This file can be edited to customize the Xen boot commands, and will add a menuentry to your grub.cfg when the following command is run:

Issue the following commands as root so that the services are started at bootup:

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# systemctl enable xenstored.service

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# systemctl enable xenconsoled.service

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# systemctl enable xendomains.service

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=== Xenfs Mountpoint ===

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Include in your ''/etc/fstab''

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none /proc/xen xenfs defaults 0 0

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=== Bridged Networking ===

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Previous versions of Xen provided a bridge connection whereas Xen 4.2 requires that network communications between the guest, the host (and beyond) is set up separately. The use of both DHCP and static addressing is possible, and the choice should be determined by your network topology. With basic bridged networking, a virtual switch is created in dom0 that every domu is attached to. More complex setups are possible, see the [http://wiki.xen.org/wiki/Xen_Networking Networking] article on the Xen wiki for details.

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Netcfg greatly simplifies network configuration and is now included as standard in the ''base'' package. Example configuration files are provided in ''etc/network.d/examples'' and Xen 4.2 provides scripts for various networking configurations in ''/etc/xen/scripts''.

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By default, Xen expects a bridge to exist named xenbr0. To set this up with netcfg, do the following:

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# cd /etc/network.d

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# cp examples/bridge xenbridge-dhcp

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make the following changes to xen-bridge:

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INTERFACE="xenbr0"

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BRIDGE_INTERFACE="eth0" # Use the name of the external interface found with the 'ip link' command

Reboot your dom0 host and ensure that the Xen kernel boots correctly and that all settings survive a reboot. A properly set up dom0 should report show the following when you run xl list (as root):

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# xl list

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Name ID Mem VCPUs State Time(s)

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Domain-0 0 511 2 r----- 41652.9

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Of course, the Mem, VCPUs and Time columns will be different depending on machine configuration and uptime. The important thing is that dom0 is listed.

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== Using Xen ==

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Once the dom0 is fully operational, domUs may be created / imported. Each OS has a slightly different method of installation, see the [http://wiki.xen.org/wiki/Category:Guest_Install Guest Install] page of the Xen wiki for links to instructions.

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=== Creating a Paravirtualized (PV) Arch domU ===

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This is how to install Arch as a user domain (or VM) on an already-running Xen host. To install Arch ''as'' the Xen host (dom0), see the previous section.

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To begin, download the latest install ISO from the nearest mirror: [https://www.archlinux.org/download/ Dowload page]. Place the ISO file on the dom0 host. (it is recommended that its checksum be verified, too)

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Create the hard disks for the new domU. This can be done with [[LVM]], raw hard disk partitions or image files. To create a 10GiB blank hard disk file, the following command can be used:

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truncate -s 10G sda.img

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This creates a sparse file, which grows (to a maximum of 10GiB) only when data is added to the image. If file IO speed is of greater importance than domain portability, using a [[LVM|Logical Volume]] or [[Partitioning|raw partition]] may be a better choice.

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Next, loop-mount the installation ISO. To do this, ensure the directory /mnt exists and is empty, then run the following command (being sure to fill in the correct ISO path):

This file needs to tweaked for your specific use. Most importantly, the {{ic|1=archisolabel=ARCH_201301}} line must be edited to use the release year/month of the ISO being used. The {{ic|"phy:/path/to/partition,sda1,w"}} line must be edited to point to the partition created for the domU. If an image file is being used, the {{ic|phy:}} needs to be changed to {{ic|file:}}. Finally, a MAC address must be assigned. The 00:16:3e MAC block is reserved for Xen domains, do the last three digits may be randomly filled in (hex values 0-9 and a-f only). See the xl.cfg man page for more information on what the .cfg file lines do. The AUR package [https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/xen-docs/ xen-docs] will need to be installed to access the man pages.

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Create the new domU:

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# xl create -c /etc/xen/archdomu.cfg

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The -c option will enter the new domain's console when successfully created. At this point, Arch should be installed as usual. The [Installation Guide] should be followed. There will be a few deviations, however. The block devices listed in the disks line of the cfg file will show up as {{ic|/dev/xvd*}}. Use these devices when partitioning the domU. After installation and before the domU is rebooted, the following modules must be added to {{ic|/etc/mkinitcpio.conf}}:

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MODULES = "xen-blkfront xen-fbfront xen-netfront xen-kbdfront"

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Without these modules, the domU will not boot correctly. After saving the edit, rebuild the initramfs with the following command:

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mkinitcpio -p linux

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For booting, it is not necessary to install Grub. Xen has a Python-based grub emulator, so all that is needed to boot is a grub.cfg file: (It may be necessary to create the /boot/grub directory)

This file must be edited to match the UUID of the root partition. From within the domU, run the following command:

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# blkid

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Replace all instances of __UUID__ with the real UUID of the root partition (the one that mounts as "/").

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Shutdown the domU with the {{ic|poweroff}} command. The console will be returned to the hypervisor when the domain is fully shut down, and the domain will no longer appear in the xl domains list. Now the ISO file may be unmounted:

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# umount /mnt

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The domU cfg file should now be edited. Delete the "kernel = ", "ramdisk = ", and "extra = " lines and replace them with the following line:

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bootloader = "pygrub"

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Also remove the ISO disk from the "disk = " line.

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The Arch domU is now set up. It may be started with the same line as before:

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# xl create -c /etc/xen/archdomu.cfg

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If the domU should be started on boot, create a symlink to the cfg file in /etc/xen/auto and ensure the xendomains service is set up correctly.

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=== Useful xl command examples ===

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# xl top

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# xl list

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# xl console domUname

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# xl shutdown domUname

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# xl destroy domUname

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== Common Errors ==

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* 'xl list' complains about libxl

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- Either you have not booted into the Xen system, or xen modules listed in ''xencommons'' script are not installed

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* ''xl create'' fails

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- check the guest's kernel is located correctly, check the pv-xxx.cfg file for spelling mistakes (like using ''initrd'' instead of ''ramdisk'')

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* Arch linux guest hangs with a ctrl-d message

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- press ctrl-d until you get back to a prompt, rebuild its initramfs described

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* Error message "''failed to execute '/usr/lib/udev/socket:/org/xen/xend/udev_event' 'socket:/org/xen/xend/udev_event': No such file or directory''"

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- caused by ''/etc/udev/rules.d/xend.rules''; xend is (a) deprecated and (b) not used, so it is safe to remove xend.rules